Embroidered map samplers

In Making Samplers, ISBN 0864385994, 1993, contributors include Jane Greenoff, Brenda Keyes, Jo Verso there is a chapter on Map Samplers:

"For ornament and education
. . . by the 1780's map outlines ready for embroidering were available commercially printed on to fabric. It was usual for embroidered maps to include the decorative embellishments.
. . . silk and satin were particularly popular for embroidered maps which depiced the entire world, either flat or in the round. In some cases the stitchery was confined to the use of black threads.
Flowers decoration: different periods favoured different flowers"

Maritime Museum visit

On Monday April 12 we went to the Maritime Museum to see their nautical embroideries.




Here is the Museum's information on what we saw with my photos.



00004991 Embroidered map of Captain Cook’s voyage attributed to Elizabeth Cook

Embroidered maps and map samplers developed from in the British Isles in the 1770s. They were popular from the 1770s to the 1840s. The maps could either be hand drawn or commercially printed onto fabric for embroidery. The firm Laurie & Whittle offered such fabric maps for 7 shillings and 6 pence.

From: Tyner, Judith. Geography through Globes in the needle’s eye: embroidered maps eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Map Collector, No.66, 1994.

The ANMM purchased the map at Sotheby’s Painting Sale, 17 November 1988, with Hordern House acting the Museum’s agent.

The catalogue entry for the auction reads ‘A Late 18th Century, early 19th Century Hand Embroidered Map of the Western Hemisphere, which traces Captain Cook’s Voyages of Discovery. Provenance: Tyrrell Collection’.
A note on the back of the original frame read ‘The English Scottish and Australian Bank Limited / made in Great Britain'.




00019057 Sailor’s wool embroidery of a ship of the line and six flags, 19th Century

Three masted ship of the line, surmounted by a crown and flanked by six flags (A Union Jack, a French flag and a Red Ensign on left: A Union Jack, an Italian flag and a Red Ensign on right). Rose, Shamrock and Thistle design below.

Embroidery was a regular spare time activity of sailors in the 19th century, due to its content is it most likely made by a British sailor. The style of the Italian flag dates it to after 1861.


Purchased from a private vendor in 1995, who had purchased it at a garage sale many years before.


00019540 Embroidery sampler worked by Julia Donovan onboard the CARNATIC, 23 January 1879

Purchased in 1990 from Simpson’s Antiques with a collection of employment papers relating to the career of ship stewardess and matron Alice Wadley. The papers date from 1879 to 1887.

Julia Donovan is mentioned in the Queensland Archives as arriving in Rockhampton, Queensland, on board the CARNATIC on 5 February 1879. Her age is listed as 19.

The matron addressed in the sampler is most likely Alice Wadley and the sampler given to her by Julia Donovan at the end of her voyage on the CARNATIC.

The sampler has the alphabet in upper and lower case plus numerals from 1 to 17. Beneath is the address beginning ‘Dearest Matron we must part you / On that strange and distant shore…’. The sampler is signed ‘Worked by Julia Donovan board the Carnatic January 23rd 1879’.

00028956 Embroidered postcard, Australian Commonwealth Military Force, Paris, 1916

Purchased from I.S. Wright in 1995. The postcard depicts the flags of the main allied nations (Britain, France and Imperial Russia) plus the Australian flag and the crest of the Australian Defence Force. Made in France the postcard was sent from a major military base in Britain. The message on the back reads ‘To Dot with Love from Jim, September 27th 1916, Salisbury Plains, England’.

Mapping Textile Landscapes

The Textile Society of America has put the programme for their Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska (Oct. 6-9) on their website

The very first session is : Mapping Textile Landscapes!

The conference starts with one day of tours, then a day and a half of papers (unfortunately they run 4 sessions simultaneously so you have to decide which to go to), then an afternoon of sessions at specific locations, a third day of papers and then a final day of tours. There is a Willa Cather tour for the literary minded.